REVIEW: Converge - Hum of Hurt [2026]
Artist: Converge
Album: Hum of Hurt
In a time of unrelenting Notes-app statements, deafening discourse on nothing in particular and the term metalcore increasingly needing modifiers to determine whether something is really metalcore, it feels hard to discuss Converge in good faith. In spite of this, somehow, in the year 2026, Converge deserve to be talked about perhaps more than ever in eager anticipation of the release of Hum of Hurt, the band’s 12th full length studio record—and second in 2026 alone. Hum of Hurt sees Converge enter a visceral conceptual rabbit hole, which isn’t to say that the band tells a start-to-finish story throughout the sprawling, adventurous release, but that they steep the listener in a rich, bleak and pulverizing atmosphere that serves as an immense standalone record, but an incredibly vivid and beautiful foil to February’s Love is Not Enough. Jarring dissonance in a head-on clash with pummeling energy interspersed with oneiric unease in a way that a band of only Converge’s stature is capable at managing adeptly, a pointed reminder that for every time you’ve seen what felt like excessive praise for the legendary quartet, they soundly deserve every syllable of hyperbole and then some.
Hum of Hurt is as scathing as it is suffocating—for every raucous salvo of helter-skelter percussion and frantic fretwork a la “Slip the Noose,” there is a seiche of sinister, dreary atmosphere. Percussionist Ben Koller is the band’s ironclad backbone. From the frantic and off-kilter clashes of bright snare and splashy cymbal work on “Slip the Noose,” “Detonator” and “It Only Gets Worse” to the steady, steamrolling ten-ton candor of “Dream Debris” and “Nothing is Over,” Koller’s work sets the pace for Converge, no matter the style or tone of assault they besiege the listener with. Where Koller sets the speed, however, guitarist Kurt Ballou and bassist Nate Newton set the tone. The spastic frenzies of “Hum of Hurt” or “Slip the Noose” see the duo contrasting skin-rending fretwork, grisly bass and hard-hitting percussion. This exists on a spectrum with songs like “I Won’t Let You Go” and “Its Not Up To Us” that balance primal aggression with interspersed calm—isles of tedious peace placed painstakingly amid an otherwise malicious tsunami of tremendous, math-tinted metalcore fury. On the farthest end of the spectrum that is Hum of Hurt is “Dream Debris” and its corollary interlude “It Used to Matter,” a foray into devastatingly dense and crushing sludge. Flesh rends, bones bend and ultimately break over the vicious pressure exerted by Ballou and Newton, giving the listener a prolonged and poignant insight into a side of Converge less explored.
It would be remiss to not spend at least brief paragraph on Jacob Bannon’s superb vocal presence throughout Hum of Hurt. The reign of havoc throughout Love is Not Enough continues on Hum of Hurt—whether its shrill screams, harsh and brazen yells or a serving of something more haunting and ethereal, Bannon’s work is second to none. Channeling the darkest aspects of his journal into middle-age (something I can feel breathing down my own neck) and its relationship with the pervasive pain of the human condition, Bannon’s dense lyrical content is served on a series of vectors that mirror the bleak and remorseless content perfectly. If this doesn’t hit home throughout “Hum of Hurt” or “I Won’t Let You Go,” it certainly will by the time “Nothing is Over” rings to a close.
When I was first falling in love with Converge some time in the mid-to-late 2000s, I never thought I would be trying to have an earnest and sincere discussion about the crucial nature of the band just about 20 years later. While it stands tall on its own merit, reading about its combined origin with the juggernaut from earlier this year, Love is Not Enough, Hum of Hurt adopts an even deeper ability to be appreciated. Somehow, Converge seem as relevant now as they were then—if not more so—all while remaining true to the band’s core mission. Uncomfortable, unrelenting and unapologetic, Hum of Hurt isn’t for everyone—and everyone won’t get it the first time they listen, but it is a stark and steadfast example of Converge doing exactly what it is that makes them the force they are.
8.5/10
For Fans Of: Poison the Well, Birds in Row, Hesitation Wounds, Misery Signals, Shai Hulud
Connor Welsh